Bergen baby!

This autumn Nina got the call that she had made it into the university in Bergen to study Pharmacy. So we packed up the truck and headed north west to the coastal town on the western side of Norway.

Bergen is a beautifull city surounded by Norways classical scenery. It is also only 1.5 hours from Voss which is packed with awesome kayaking runs in the summer and some great skiing in the winter.

Autumn in Bergen

Only 40 minutes outside of Bergen lies a great little stretch on the Bjorndalselve. A section of small slides and drops that follow right along side the road makes for a great back yard run . Other rivers are also being discovered by the quickly growing and very commited group of local paddlers that are starting to develop a real vibe here.

Silje hitting the second rapid on Bjorndalselve

After living in a small village for the past few years it is also a nice change to experience the culture here. I recently had the pleasure of trying a local delacasy known as Smalahove, sheeps head to you and me!

Cooking the Smalehove

I'm not normally one to crack to peer pressure but being surrounded by 4 tough girls from Voss and Nina it was time to man up.

The thought of eating a sheeps head didn't really phase me, even thinking of chewing on the eye hadn't freaked me out, until the plate was placed down in front of me and I could see half a head staring back at me.

Eating the eye

Bergen has a lot more to offer and i'm looking forward to discovering more here over the next 5 years. Until then we are heading to Voss at the weekend for the first ski of the season.

Take it easy.

Summer Season Wrap Up

The 2008 season started with big plans. The winter before we had talked about a huge mission where we would try to paddle one mile of vertial white water over 31 days between four of us. Ed Cornfield, Martin Vollen, Per Christian Pedersen and Myself where going to attempt this project known as One Mile One Month. The expedition started off great. we met up in the Telemark region of Norway to start hucking. telemark is home to some great runs and amazing drops.

First drop of Home Run.

Unfortunately while paddling the Home Run section on the Mår Ed had a nasty landing on the 4th drop which ended in the worst break i've ever seen on the river and a horrible swim to follow.  Check out the film clip below:

One Mile One Month, Broken Ed 

After that Ed flew back to the UK to get his arm fixed and back up to strength before his next adventure in Patagonia skiing.

The rest of us ventured up to Voss and the Voss extreme week. Martin did really weel claiming 4th place in the Downriver race pushed out of the top spot by the Kiwi boys and we all managed to hit some big drops and party.

Money Falls, closer to the rock than I like!

We kept trying to make the distance needed to complete One Mile but quickly realised that with four of us this was a huge project so now we were down to three we had very little chance.

So the project went un-completed but we had a blast trying and learnt a lot and got to paddle in some amazing places. It was great fun to give it a shot, there was huge interest in this project from other paddlers so now we have opened the door and it will be great to see if anyone steps up and gives this another go.

The rest of the summer was great, spent traveling around Norway to the various festivals etc and really enjoying the paddling season.

Nina and me enjoying the Voss Extreme week.

Jordalselva

Longboarding in the Norwegian summer.

I also hooked up with an awesome new company called Xtreme 4X4 who helped me out with my truck.  They lift and modify Mitsubishi, Nissan and Isuzu and with an Icelandic background are the best in the business.

Xtreme 4X4 Mitsubishi L200, so much fun!

Winter is here now and the snow is just around the corner which is exciting, the snow will soon be here but we are still getting on the river when ever possible until it is too cold.  we had a great run down the marine section of the Raundalselva at low water a couple of weeks ago which fired us up for next season.  But until then we have the snow to play with and hopefully a trip some where warm!